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I have this habit of pondering over some of the most obvious things, some of the most obvious behaviors of a person or a process. I do this every now and then, and I do it repeatedly. And I can’t help it. I just find it beautiful, how things behave, how things work, even if they are pretty obvious, even if they’re simple.

Did you ever sit down, and think how cold the environment becomes once the sun sets? How it would be amazing if it remained this way? Of course, we would all die, but that’s not the point. The mere fact that the sun gives life to us all, and its absence for a few hours cools down the earth so much? It’s amazing.

Have you ever wondered how fountains are beautiful? They rise and they fall. The boring way of understanding it would be saying “Hey that’s only gravity at work.”. Take that out of the equation, and just wonder how it shows that if there’s a rise, there will be a fall. Where there’s happiness, sadness will follow. The fountain rises again, and it does so because of a force that works on it to let it reach its heights. If you’re going through a phase of sadness, you’ll have to work to snap out of it. If there wouldn’t have been a force acting on the fountain, it wouldn’t rise again. If you don’t work to solve your problems, you’re not going to get out of sadness.

It’s amazing how things can motivate you, how they can inspire you. It can be a person, his life, his attitude, but more often than not, I’ve been inspired by things which don’t have any life in them. Things which cannot call you and scream ‘Inspiration’ until you notice them yourselves.

Sometimes you also find inspiration in places you least expect. But I guess that’s the best part of it all, eh.

I found inspiration in one such place.

On my way to work, there is this water body I cross. There is a statue in the centre, and fountains around it. These fountains are operational during the day too, and although they don’t add to the beauty as much during the day, I can’t help but notice them every time. Today was different, though.

I noticed how the the force of winds would prevent the fountain from going further up in the air. It was limiting its reach, and it’d make me think they should use more powerful machines. But I noticed one more thing – the force of the winds would result in the water falling farther from its source, extending its reach. Higher the force, farther would the water reach.

It taught me one thing. I learnt that although life is painful, it teaches you and makes you more capable with every passing moment. More the pain, more the learned person you are, at the end of a day.

I think it’s beautiful. Struggles are beautiful. I don’t get frightened at the sight of tough times ahead. I just push myself more, so I can fare better. So I can extend my reach.

Today is the day. Yeah. I’ve just finished all my IPCC exams. And now, I’m a free bird! Totally! What I almost feared to death a fortnight back is beyond me. Already. Time flies, doesn’t it? It does when you’re enjoying what you have at your hand. Really. Try reading a book which you don’t like and see how it feels. Next, do something you like, and there, yeah, you’ll feel the difference. It’s quite simple. Life is simple. It’s we who complicate it.

The other day, my Dad said he couldn’t sleep the entire night. I asked him why. He said he was tensed about my exams! Can you believe that! I mean why would HE be tensed up for MY exams? It’s fairly simple. He was not quite sure if I had prepared well enough. He wasn’t confident. On the contrary, I was all pumped up and was eager to go out there and write the exam. Although there was a wee bit nervousness, I was ready. My Dad wasn’t. Quite weird. After all, it’s me who had to write the exams and not him. If someone had to be tensed, it should have been me. Which, however, wasn’t the case. That’s me.

I went to him and said, stop worrying. The best he could do was encourage me. That’s it. The onus to prepare and do well in exams was on me. Since there was nothing much he could do, I advised him to relax. It’s not in his hands, and one is wasting himself worrying about things that ain’t in his/her control.

He followed it, surprisingly. Any guesses whether he felt better? He did. He stopped worrying. And more than himself, I felt better. The burden of expectations is one that makes me nervous at times. I still try not to worry about this, but I have another way to deal with this burden. I recluse. I go into a shell. That helps. Although I’m all mischievous from outside and all, I’m quite different from within.

If anyone of you went through the finer details of the OBL operation, you’d know how Barack Obama wouldn’t show any tense-ness on his face even though he knew about OBL and stuff. This was perhaps the best kept secret. It indeed was. He’s the President of the world’s superpower, and I think he’d have zillion times more burden of expectations. The way he handled it is very admirable. These are indeed the qualities of a real Man.

…and you all may know how cool our own captain of the cricket team (India), Mahendra Singh Dhoni is. Admirable. I don’t think I’d have to elaborate on this. He’s highly popular as it is for being cool. He’s the Captain Cool after all.

In a nutshell…

It’s all quite simple.

Worrying, after all won’t do any good to anyone. Staying calm is the key. So is being confident. But all this comes from being ready. And once you’ve followed the above few points, you can control the outcome. Now this is very important. Being in control of not only oneself, but also of the outcome, is vital. Once you experience it, your confidence will drastically increase. You will stop worrying, if at all you do. You can go out and just do your thing. You can be yourself. I’m me, now. So can be you.